Wonder
by teetee3
Summary: Will is still staying with Ellie, but he will soon leave to college. Ellie and Jennifer still have one more year at Avalon High. Ellie and the others are wondering if there will be an Elaine of Astolat after all... since it's not Ellie.
1. Chapter 1

**author's note: hey this is my secod fan fiction; my first for Avalon High. Hope you like chapter one! please review! :D and i tried to use some of the voice from avaoln high; if u dont think i did that part very well, just let me know and i'll make it 100% my voice lol. im hoping for good reviws, suggestions; ect. hope i dont get flames. :D enjoy!  
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**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN AVALON HIGH  
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I ran to his room – he still lived in my house – and threw my arms around his neck.

"Will!" I yelled ecstatically.

"Um… hey, Elle!" he grinned, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me up to his height. My feet dangled a few centimeters off the ground. After a hug, he set me down and asked, "Why are you so excited today, Elle?"

_Elle. Not Elaine; not even Ellie. Just Elle. I love it when he calls me that! _I stared up into his eyes and wondered how _I _could have A. William Wagner all to myself. I still didn't like thinking of the A. standing for Arthur. I cleared my throat.

"Let's go to the pool. I'll tell you out there!" I was almost leaping out of my skin with the excitement I felt. Before he could reply, I ran out of the room to get ready for the pool.

"Okay…" he called after me. I grinned. I entered my room and grabbed my swimsuit off of my bed – where I usually left it since I went swimming so much. I hurried to get it on and then ran to wait by Will's room.

See, Will has had some… problems… with his family. Like he found out his step-mom was his real mom, his dad killed her first husband so that he could marry her, and his brother was in jail after an attempt to kill Will. Yeah. Problems. So, he moved in with _me. _At _my_ house.

Anyway, I was waiting for him to come out of my brother – Geoff's – room, where Will was staying. Soon, Will exited my brother's room in long, dark blue swim trunks… this time they were _his _and not Geoff's. Every time we were together at my house, I couldn't help but remember the first time he was here… standing on Spider Rock and watching me float. He was even more muscular and tanned from all the football practice and sailing.

I couldn't believe it had almost been a year since I had first seen A. William Wagner… sitting in the ravine in the park, where we went a lot now. And, as the time passed, I had become sadder and sadder because my parent's year-long sabbatical was getting closer to it's end… closer to leaving Will and Annapolis and Maryland and my pool just to go back "home". But since I have had the time of my life for almost a year, Annapolis _was _home, and I did _not _want to leave again. Because every girl who meets her Prince Charming – or I guess I should say her "King Arthur" – wants to just stay for a year and then move back to the boring place where she came from with hardly any friends.

Um, not.

So, that's why Will was so surprised to see me so ecstatic today. I mean, true, every time I was with Will I felt happier, but now I had another reason to be excited. I grabbed his hand and tugged him around the house to grab towels, my raft, and then to go outside. After tossing my raft into the water and climbing into it, I waited for Will to dive into the cool, blue water before telling him the news. By then, I was shaking with excitement. He waded over to me and laid his arms on my raft. I sat up and leaned toward him.

"So, what's the news?" he asked anxiously.

"Guess!" I gripped the edge of the raft and waited. He shook the water from his hair and rested his head on his arms.

"I don't know," he finally said, smiling.

"Will!" I burst with joy, "I'm not moving!" His jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"What? You're not… you're not moving!" He grabbed me and pulled me into the water… something I wouldn't let anyone but him do to me. I never swam. I just floated. But I got soaked in water as he pulled me into the pool with him. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Are you serious?" he grinned, "But how?" He let go of me, puzzled.

I wrapped my arms around his chest and held him tightly. I didn't have to leave Will! Or Avalon High or Annopolis or Maryland or my pool.

"Well," I announced, "the guy whose house we're renting decided to move to England, and he is letting us buy the house. And, my parents like Annapolis and are glad _I _like Annapolis, and my dad is happy he can stay here… with all this medieval stuff."

"You're calling me medieval?" Will asked.

"No…" I replied, "I'm not calling anyone medieval. If you were medieval, then I'd be medieval, and no offense, but I would _hate _living in medieval times! We'd probably be dead by now if we lived back then."

"Um… so what 'medieval stuff' did you mean? And no, we kinda _did _live back then!" he laughed. I pouted. Whenever I thought of Mr. Morton being right about us, I felt I was going crazy. I mean, I guess I accepted it now, but it was still crazy. And, to keep me sane, Will and I had agreed to ignore the fact that he was King Arthur, I was the Lady of the Lake, Jennifer was Guinevere, Lance was Lancelot, et cetera, for the summer.

"I will _not _think of _us _at medieval!" I laughed, "I mean like…like the sword…" I swam back to the raft and pulled myself onto it. I laid flat and stared at him, waiting for his reply. I shivered as a wind blew by, and I hugged my shoulders. I wished my bikini was somehow warmer right now. Will ran up and gripped the edge of the raft with his hands. I sat up, hugging my knees, to make room for him. He climbed on and sat across from me.

_Oh my gosh! _I thought _He is sitting on my raft. He is right there; right next to me! _My breathing stopped. My heart flopped over…again.

Anyway, Will climbed up across from me, his bronze skin gleaming in the sun. He stroked my arm, and the usual jolt of electricity shot up my arm. He ran his hand along my arm and up to my shoulder, where my bikini tied, and then back down. He entwined our fingers, and I compared his warm, tan skin to my white, cool, wet hand.

"The sword is mine," he said gently, "So that makes me medieval." He laughed softly and rested his head on his knees, gazing into my eyes.

"Ugh!" I sighed, "Fine, you win. My dad wants to be around medieval stuff… like us." I laughed, too. I skimmed the water with my hand and noticed that the raft was sinking with two older teenagers on it. He looked down and noticed too. Before he started to slide off, I grabbed his hand tighter and kept him on. I rolled over on my stomach, and so did he, so that we could kick the water with our feet and keep the raft afloat. He rested his head on his arms and smiled at me. I did the same. The breeze blew my hair into my face. I tried to shake it out of the wind, but it didn't move. I sighed. He chuckled and lifted a hand to push it behind my ear. Staring into his eyes, the world seemed to freeze. Like, yeah, there was still the light breeze and moving water, and we were still breathing. But, everything else felt like it disappeared. I leaned closer and so did he. We kissed, but I pulled away reluctantly. But I _had_ to ask him a question, which was kind of hard to do while kissing.

"Hey, Will?" I asked.

"Yeah, Elle?" he raised an eyebrow.

"If it really is true; like if you really were King Arthur and I was the Lady of the Lake, then who is Elaine of Astolat?" I really wanted to know. Will shrugged.

"I don't know," he sighed, "Hopefully no one. I mean, I know people say they'd die for the one they love, but actually killing yourself over someone is just… weird. I love the poem, but I would hate for there to be an Elaine of Astolat here."

"I know what you mean," I agreed, "We could always see who Mr. Morton expects…"

"Haha. Yeah, my wizard might know who the Lady of Shallot could be."

"If he doesn't know, then nobody knows," I said.

"True," he sighed. And then he looked at me; half of my body in the water. He knew by now that I didn't really _swim_; I floated and cleaned the water… but I never really swam. So, he slid off of the float, into the cool, clear water, so I could put my whole body on the raft. I shivered; there was a little wind plus the water had been cold. He swam… beautifully, I might add… to the edge of the pool to grab his black Ray-Bans from the side. He slipped them on, got out, grabbed a raft, and then came back in. He climbed onto his raft and floated to where I was. He turned on his side so he could face me.

I tried to push the thoughts about Elaine out of my mind. I could always call Mr. Morton, go to his house, or even just wait until my senior year to ask what he thought about Elaine. I could go to the eleventh grade halls and ask Mr. Morton – or Merlin, as Will said – if he suspected anyone of being Elaine…since it wasn't me. But, if I did this, I would have to ask without Will. I couldn't believe that Will had graduated. He was soon to be a freshman in college… _college!_ He was happy, at least, that he didn't have to go to the naval academy, but he was sad to leave everyone. Even Lance. Lance wasn't smart enough to get into a college that Will was offered a scholarship to. Except for one… they were both accepted into some college for football… but it only paid a part of the cost for college, and Will didn't have enough money to get in. He's _just _out of high school. Of course he can't pay _that _much. And, he refused to ask his parents for the money. Or mine. My parents offered, but he knew it would be hard on our family – my parents weren't rich. They were professors… middle-class professors. Any way, I could _not _believe Will wasn't coming to Avalon High again. It would just be me, Liz and the other track girls, and Jennifer Gold. And Jennifer was _not _what I would call my greatest friend. Ha. We were friends… but not _best _friends. In any way.

My best friend was still Nancy, who I missed _so _much, and who would be very sad and angry when I planned to call her to tell her that I wasn't moving. But then, I knew, she'd also go all romantic on me. Which wouldn't be so bad anymore. I was starting to find my self not so practical. And she'd be excited to come visit and to have an excuse to talk on the phone with me more, and to talk_ even more _about romance now that I had a boyfriend. But she'd still be sad. I was sad, too. And very, very happy not to leave Annapolis.

Any way, Will sat up on his raft and hugged his knees.

"Elle?" he asked. My heart flipped at the name.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Let's go to the park," he said. I nodded in agreement, and we pushed our rafts to the edge of the pool. He climbed out and reached out an arm to pull me up. I stepped onto the cool rocks and shivered. We started walking and stopped before we got to the back door. We stared at each other… or at least I could feel him staring back at me, but his eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses.

"Elle," he whispered musically. I reached up a hand and slid his sunglasses off of his face. I gazed into his blue eyes. I gently tossed the sunglasses onto a lawn chair. I shivered again, still cold from the breeze and the pool. He pulled me in softly, his hand resting on the skin on my back. It sent the regular electric shock through me. And then he was kissing me. I ran a hand across his well-muscled chest and then wrapped my arms around his neck. He pulled me closer, and I wasn't cold anymore. Eventually, we stopped kissing. He leaned his forehead against mine, and I could feel his breathing on my face. I moved my head to lean against his broad, wet shoulder. I stood there; heart-racing, breathing hard, until he stepped back. He scooped me up in his arms and slid the back door open. He set me down on the rug and rushed back out to grab the towels. He wrapped mine around me, and I wrung out my brown hair.

We walked to our rooms to go get dressed and ready for the park. I dried off, pulled on my jeans and Avalon High t-shirt and tried brushing the wet tangles from my hair. When I thought my hair looked fairly-decent, I came out of my room. Justin was waiting outside my door in long shorts, a t-shirt, and his Ray-Bans, which were in his hair, not his eyes.

When we got downstairs, I walked to my dad's office door. I knocked twice, and he grunted.

"Dad," I called, "We're going to the park. Okay?"

"Okay," he replied, "Drive safe." I didn't need rides anymore…well, I kind of did. After moving in, Will had gotten his car from his old house, and so now he gave me rides. I had recently gotten my license, too, but my parents decided that I wouldn't get a car until Will left for college and I needed one. Oh, and I had a cell phone now, too. Finally.

After grabbing my cell phone, iPod, and my iPod's arm strap, we left for the car. He drove to the park, and we set out to the ravine, where I was sure he wanted to go.

Every time we passed someone, Will smiled and waved. I did too now… because now I _wanted _to. Not because my parents would be appalled if I didn't, and not because Will did it, so I felt like I had to. And definitely _not _for Image. It was just like that first day at the park. When I had seen Will, my lips had just automatically smiled. Which now made sense because of the King Arthur thing. _Oops. I wasn't supposed to think of King Arthur. _But, it was like that. Now that I was used to seeing Will smile at everyone, my lips wanted to smile at everyone, too. It kind of annoyed me. Because I couldn't care les about Image. But apparently my smile did.

We made it to the high grass outlining the ravine. Will swept me up and carried me down to it, laughing the whole time. He set me down on the large rock and sat next to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder and sighed. He looked down at me, his blue eyes shining. I traced shapes on his back, wondering how _I _got Will; how _I _could possibly be seen as the Lady of the Lake; how he could choose _me_ over Jennifer; how life could turn a practical girl so… unpractical and head over heels in love with someone.

"What will Mr. Morton do without you or Lance at Avalon High next year?" I whispered.

"I don't know…" he sighed, "What will _you _do without me?"

"I don't know," I laughed. I really didn't know.


	2. Chapter 2

I could hardly sleep all night… I wanted to _know _who Elaine of Astolat was. If there really was one somewhere here now. I couldn't imagine killing myself for someone…especially not for _Lance. _I hoped there wasn't someone who would…I hoped there was no Lady of Shallot here, in this generation. But I had a bad feeling there would be…because if all of us were here, why wouldn't she be? And what if it was someone I knew? One of my _friends? _No, I couldn't sleep with this on my mind. So I laid in bed, awake all night, thinking about it and thinking about how life would continue in high school next year without Will.

I sat up when it was late enough in the morning, and I climbed out of bed. I whipped my messy hair into a ponytail and walked out of the room. I walked to Will's door and looked down at my white t-shirt and pajama pants before tapping on the door to see if he was awake. He probably wasn't. He was a typical teenage guy… You can't expect them to get up too early. I guess I woke him up, because after a minute, I heard some noise – drawers opening and closing – and then the door opened, a tired-eyes Will standing in the doorway. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. He had thrown on a gray V-neck and pajama pants over his boxers.

"Good morning," I smiled, trying not to laugh. He scratched his neck.

"…It's only ten…" he said. I grinned and reached out a hand to try and fix his messy hair. He yawned one more time and smiled, pulling me into a hug. "I guess I'm awake, so good morning, Elle." He released me and stumbled back over to his bed, sitting down on the edge. I came over and sat next to him, leaning on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around me and smiled. I couldn't believe Will was actually sitting here with _me, _in _my _house, living _here. _And that he was actually _mine. _Not Jennifer's. Not anyone else's.

"Want to go eat?" I asked, trying not to drift off into daydreams of him. He nodded and said he would get dressed first. I gave him a hug and left the room, my smile shining. I walked to my room and pulled on some clothes. I sat on my bed and felt like lying down to fall asleep…I was so tired from my thoughts keeping me awake all night. I fell back onto my bed, wishing I could crawl under the covers and sleep, but I needed to get up and go eat with Will. And I knew I couldn't sleep…I would only think more about Elaine of Astolat. And everything else.

Trying to keep my mind off of that subject, I glanced around the room. I saw Will's letter jacket at the edge of the bed...he had gotten it from Varity football as a sophomore. It even smelled like him. I reached down and pulled it up over me and curled up in a ball.I tried not to fall asleep, though, so I continued to look. I smiled when I saw Will's rose on my nightstand. The rose from what seemed like so long ago…the rose he had given to me at the lemonade stand. It was dying a little, but I would keep it as long as the water in the vase could keep at least some pink in the flower…hopefully I would keep it forever. I reached into the right pocket of his Avalon High letter jacket for his iPod. I turned it on and scrolled to the song I remembered from when I first visited him in the ravine,_ Courtiers, Kings, and Troubadours. _I still found it weird that he listened to medieval love ballads, but sometimes when we visited the ravine we would listen to them and I would go back in time to that day at the ravine. So, I pushed in the headphones, took one last look at the rose, and smiled as I closed my eyes so that I could revisit the past; the memories of William A. Wagner that were so vivid in my memory.

"Um…Ellie?" a voice said curiously. I woke with a start. I sat up and waited for my eyes to focus in on Will's face. I threw the jacket aside and pulled out the earphones.

"Oh…hey," I laughed, "Sorry, I fell asleep."

"I noticed," he smiled and sat down next to me. "Ready to go eat?"

I laughed again. "Sure. You're _always _hungry." I shoved him playfully and he fell back on the bed. He pulled me down with him so that I lay next to him.

"So?" he grinned, "I'm a guy. I'm _supposed _to be hungry! And _you _look really tired. You don't have to come; you can stay and sleep."

"No way," I laughed, sitting up, "I'm up, I'm up."

He stood up and I held out a hand. He smiled and tugged me up onto my feet. We walked downstairs to find something to eat for breakfast. I grabbed a box of cereal, and Will dug around in my fridge for eggs and bacon. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Want eggs?" I shook my head and waved the cereal box at him, too tired to say no. "Fine," he said, "You win." He put the eggs and bacon back into the fridge and got two bowls and spoons.

We sat down and ate, and then I asked if he wanted to go to the pool. He grinned – he was used to our (almost) daily routine. He knew I loved the pool. So, he nodded, and we ran upstairs to get ready.

In my room, I got undressed and tied on my bikini. I pulled my hair into a ponytail, grabbed a pair of sun glasses, and looked into my mirror. I smiled, and then went out to meet Will. He was standing at my door way so I practically ran into him. He was in his blue swim trunks and Ray Bans. Outside, I gawked at his tan body in the sunlight. Good thing I had sunglasses on. Because every girl wants a guy to know that they are staring at their tan, muscular body. And that wouldn't be strange at all.

Not.

I pulled out my raft and set it in the pool, watching it drift against the water. I grabbed it and pulled myself on. I smiled and closed my eyes, feeling the warmth from the sun. Will went to the poolside and took off his sunglasses, and I looked up just in time to see him take a running start and dive into the pool. The splash was big, spraying all over me. He popped up by my raft with a huge smile.

"Will!" I yelled, laughing and trying to be angry.

"Yes?" he grinned.

"…I'm wet!" I laughed, not knowing what else to say.

"Isn't that _kinda _what a pool is for?" he smiled and disappeared under water. I pulled off my sunglasses and looked desperately into the clear water. _Where was he? _I knew he was going to do something to me. And then, my raft tipped over, and I fell into the freezing water. I sprang up and wiped my eyes. I looked around and spotted Will, now laying on my raft and holding my sunglasses. He smiled down at me.

"You're wet," he laughed. I glared at him and reached for my sunglasses. "If you want them, go and get them," he teased and tossed them into the water. I sighed and held my breath, ducking under the water to find my sunglasses. I resurfaced and tossed them over by his on the poolside. I reached out for the raft, but he wouldn't let me on.

"Come on," I laughed, "It's freezing. Let me on." He smiled and slid off of the raft and into the pool next to me. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Now we're both wet. So, let's swim!" he said. I smiled and nodded.

"_Fine_, but I want my raft back soon." We swam and played water volleyball with an old beach ball, and soon I climbed back onto my raft. I floated to the side to grab my sunglasses and he swam next to me. He put on his Ray Bans and kicked the water so that he wouldn't go under.

"Will?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"I hardly slept last night. I really want to know who Elaine of Astolat is. I mean, who would kill themselves for somebody? Around here, and in _this_ century? It just sounds crazy…especially over Lance.," I said. The fact that there probably _was_ an Elaine of Astolat – _since we were all here, why wouldn't she be?_ - really bothered me. It didn't make any sense, and I didn't want somebody to kill themselves. Not over Lance. Not over anybody.

"I know, I want to know too. But maybe there isn't one. And there's not much we can do right now, anyway. We don't have anyone who might be her or anything," he sighed.

"Yeah, but I don't just want to sit here _waiting. _Waiting for what? What if that person killed themselves today, and what if we could have stopped her? We have to do something…"

"But what can we do?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well…I know where Mr. Morton lives. And he knows where I live. And I'd feel better at least talking to him about it, I mean he knows a lot of stuff about this, _right?_" I asked.

"I guess," Will said, "You're right. We should do something…"


End file.
